The Aarhus Center in Skopje was established in August 2019 as a part of the Association for sustainable development Milieukontakt Macedonia.
The financial support for establishing the Center and operations within the first year is from the EU delegation in a framework of the project „Building capacities of environmental CSOs to increase democratic processes in the Republic of North Macedonia„ implemented by Milieukontakt Macedonia.
The Aarhus Centre’s work is based on the 1998 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice on Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention). The Aarhus Center works on all three pillars and works on building capacities of local stakeholders at both central and local levels.
Our Mission
The mission of the Aarhus Center Skopje is to ensure the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the Republic of North Macedonia.
We strive to achieve our mission by:
-Create and represent a bridge between state and city authorities, civil society, business sector and the public.
– Promote the introduction of regulations and methods aimed at providing access to information, public participation, and access to justice in the field of environment.
-Monitor local and national institutions in implementing legislation and procedure directly connected with the Aarhus Convention.
– Support citizens and CSOs as well as businesses to practice their rights to access to information and public participation in decision making processes concerning the environment.
What we do?
- Monitoring of National and local institution on processes and procedures that involve the Aarhus Convention implementation
- Regular meetings and communication with CSOs and members of the Aarhus network
- Regular meetings and communication with the ministry of Environment and Physical Planning
- Regular meetings with municipal officials responsible for the implementation of the legislation in the field of environment (including the Aarhus Convention);
- Meetings and networking with regional Aarhus Centres (Montenegro, Serbia, Albania);
- Preparation of Guidelines for national and local authorities for involvement of civil society organizations in decision-making processes.
- Preparation of guidelines and support of CSOs to participate in decision making processes on local and national level.
Find us here:
Aarhus Center – Skopje
Kukushka 4a, 1000 Skopje
aarhus(at)mkm.mk